What Does Cooperative Learning Do and Why? The three most important outcomes are (1) academic gains, especially for minority and low achieving students; (2) improved race-relations among students in integrated classrooms; and (3) improved social and affective development among all students. There is also evidence that cooperative learning has a positive impact on classroom climate, self-esteem among students, internal focus of control, role-taking abilities, time on task, attendance, acceptance of mainstreamed students, and liking for school and learning.
(1) ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT *promotes higher achievement than competitive and individualistic learning structures across all age levels, subject areas, and almost all tasks. A study found that 63% showed superior outcomes for cooperative learning, 33% showed no differences, and only 4 % showed higher achievement for the traditional comparison groups. Achievement gains were found in almost all (89%) of the studies which used group rewards for individual achievement (individual accountability). When individual accountability was absent, achievement overall was about the same as in comparison classrooms. * The lowest achieving students and minority students in general benefit most, but the benefit obtained for the lower achievers is not bought at the expense of the higher achievers; the high achieving students generally perform as well or better in cooperative classrooms than they do in traditional classrooms
(2) ETHNIC RELATIONS * Overall, cross-ethnic friendships improved in the cooperative learning classrooms over control classes.
(3) SOCIAL AND AFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT *Social Skills The ability to adjust one's behaviour to work effectively with others and to communicate with others can be learned only in the process of working and interacting with others. Thus, cooperative learning becomes a necessary component of curriculum reform if we are to prepare our students for a job world of the future. * Cooperative learning results in more positive social development and social relations among students at all grade levels. * when students are allowed to work together, they experience an increase in a variety of social skills; students become more able to solve problems which demand cooperation or a solution, better able to take the role of the other, and are generally more cooperative on a variety of measures, such as willingness to help and reward others. *Self-Esteem Almost all studies which compare the self-esteem of students following cooperative and traditional interaction, show significant gains favouring students in cooperative classrooms. This outcome is probably related to improved peer relations and to improved academic achievement. * Self-Direction Students in cooperative learning classrooms become more internal in their sense of control in contrast to students in traditional classrooms who feel more externally controlled. Students from cooperative learning classrooms also have a greater sense of intrinsic (self-motivated), rather than extrinsic (reward motivated), motivation. *Liking for class *Studies portrayed more students displayed liking for class and warmer class climates in cooperative classrooms. *Role-Taking Abilities Cooperative learning results in increased cognitive and affective role-taking abilities. Theoretically, role-taking and cooperative interaction opportunities have been related to the development of a higher level of morality. Experiences in situations in which bilateral and multilateral communication are necessary probably increases the general sense of interdependence among students which, in turn, increases their understanding of the experience of others.
Why Does Cooperative Learning Work? TUTORING & PRACTICE The learning task in cooperative classrooms is different from that in traditional classrooms in a number of ways that are likely to foster academic achievement. Those ways include, as indicated, the amount of comprehensible input, complexity of input, and amount of comprehensible output. In addition the following are increased: quantity and quality of tutoring and practice, clarity of task structure, subdivision of learning unit, time-on-task, practice opportunities, and frequency and quality of rewards. *PEER TUTORING Peer tutoring results in positive outcomes for both tutees and tutors. Tutee attitudes toward subject matter, student attitudes were more positive in peer tutoring classes. The effects on tutors 'were equally impressive; their positive attitudes towards the subject matter increased. *FREQUENCY AND TYPE OF PRACTICE In the well-structured mastery oriented cooperative learning methods, students spend a great deal of practice on the items they most need to learn. The students use flash cards and worksheets to master and practice skills and information) receiving repeated contact with missed items. There also is an opportunity for drill and practice also in the Jigsaw methods following the expert presentations. This structured, frequent, and often interactive practice in cooperative learning methods is probably superior for most students to group-paced work on worksheets or in workbooks. There is evidence that cooperative learning groups involve more frequent helping, tutoring, and practice than do competitive or individualistic class structures. *TIME ON TASK Students spend more time-on-task. As with academic achievement, those cooperative learning methods that provided group rewards based on individual achievement most consistently related to increased time-on task. Increased time-on-task in the cooperative learning methods results from the game-like nature of the learning tasks, the clarity of task structures, the subdivision of the task into easily mastered parts, and most importantly, the interactive nature of the task. Students like to talk. The desire to express oneself to a peer, a constant problem in the traditional classroom, is channelled in the cooperative classroom toward academic achievement. This is especially true because of the incentive reward structure; peers are motivated to keep their teammates on task because that behaviour will result in higher rewards for their team. MOTIVATION AND REWARDS The reward structure in cooperative learning classrooms is radically different from that found in traditional classrooms. Rewards in cooperative learning classrooms are frequent and peer supported. In most of the methods rewards are group based. In some of the methods, the rewards are also individually normed and equally accessible. *PRO ACADEMIC PEER REWARDS AND NORMS Cooperative learning groups involve more facilitative and encouraging interaction among students than do competitive or individualistic learning situations. This finding is particularly important as there has been a relative shift in the importance among students of peer norms as opposed to parental and teacher norms. *FREQUENT, IMMEDIATE REWARDS More frequent and immediate than individual or competitive classes. In many of the approaches there is immediate reinforcement from peers following academic gains. In addition, there are weekly quizzes, newsletters, and/or classroom bulletin boards that give recognition to team and individual achievements. The frequency and immediacy of rewards in cooperative learning classrooms are in contrast to those received in traditional classrooms. If rewards are grades and/or written praise by the teacher following a good test performance) the rewards probably follow the learning by days. Such rewards are pitifully weak in contrast to peer praise immediately following learning successes. *REWARDS FOR IMROVEMENT AND EQUAL REWARD OPPORTUNITY All students have an equal opportunity to receive rewards each week, but for different reasons. In STAD and Jigsaw II) each student's performance is compared with his or her past performance; therefore) weak and strong students have an equal chance to earn top grades. In TGT it is the bumping system that ensures that students compete against those of equal ability. In TAl, progress through the individual workbooks can occur at an equal rate for those working on beginning or advanced workbooks. Students bring their new knowledge to each workbook; therefore, difficulty remains relatively constant as students progress through the individual learning materials. However, With the Color-Coded Co-op Cards, students earn improvement points, as each student works on material he or she has not yet mastered. That rewards are equally accessible to all students is quite in contrast to a traditional classroom in which grading IS on the curve and the basis for comparison is not individual past performance but rather the performance of other students. *GROUP BASED REWARDS Group rewards have a direct effect on peer tutoring and student achievement. As more students' grades were dependent on the scores of the lowest three members in the group, pe.er tutoring and student ·achievement rose. When the group grade was contingent on the scores of the highest achievers, it was the highest achievers who learned most; when the group grade was contingent on the scores of the lowest achievers, it was the lowest achievers who learned most. The group grade motivates achievement among those students who are responsible for it. Group rewards also promote pro-social behaviours; group rewards create interdependence among students which increases cooperative behaviours. CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE REWARDS Certain cultural groups place a special value on working for the group -- individuals in those groups are more motivated to work hard it if will benefit the group than if it benefits only themselves. If a culture places a strong value on cooperative work and the school chooses to use competitive and individualistic structures to the exclusion of cooperative structures, there is a mismatch between home/culture values on one side and school/classroom values on the other. The cooperative classroom structure is more compatible with the social values of minority and other cooperative students. Students who value helping and sharing will find achievement rewarding in a cooperative classroom, whereas they will have little motivation to achieve if achievement is associated only with gains for themselves. The compatibility of the classroom structure with the individual social values of minority students. PEER SUPPORT; LOWERED ANXIETY Traditional classroom – teacher speaks, teacher questions, student answers. Competitive! In the cooperative classroom most content related student talk occurs either in pairs within teams, or in the small group. Team members are supportive, hoping their teammates will perform well. If there is correction, it is in the process of negotiation of meaning, not in the process of evaluation. In such a situation, talking is adaptive – it leads to content and language acquisition. And to the thing which means most to most students-- peer support and recognition. TEACHER ROLES AND BEHAVIORS Freed from constant lecturing. They can become consultants and gravitate to those students who can benefit most from their attention. Further, in the properly managed cooperative learning classroom teachers are freed from many of the problems of management inherent in keeping most students quiet most of the time. In cooperative classrooms students are allowed to do what they most want to do –communicate with their peers, and teachers are not forced to fight the natural tendencies of their pupils. The teacher in the cooperative classroom is on the same side as the students, serving not to dam up their natural expressiveness, but rather to channel it in positive directions. STUDENT ROLES AND BEHAVIORS Students in cooperative teams are more active, self-directing, and expressive, all of which may be associated with achievement gains. Students take direct responsibility for teaching each other and receiving help from each other. There is structural support for peer tutoring and mutual support, so peer norms for achievement emerge. Importantly, students are often given differentiated roles so that students of different ability levels have relatively equal status within their groups.
What Does Cooperative Learning Do and Why?
The three most important outcomes are
(1) academic gains, especially for minority and low achieving students;
(2) improved race-relations among students in integrated classrooms; and
(3) improved social and affective development among all students.
There is also evidence that cooperative learning has a positive impact on classroom climate, self-esteem among students, internal focus of control, role-taking abilities, time on
task, attendance, acceptance of mainstreamed students, and liking for school and learning.
(1) ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
*promotes higher achievement than competitive and individualistic learning structures across all age levels, subject areas, and almost all tasks. A study found that 63% showed superior outcomes for cooperative learning, 33% showed no differences, and only 4 % showed higher achievement for the traditional comparison groups. Achievement gains were found in almost all (89%) of the studies which used group rewards for individual achievement (individual accountability).
When individual accountability was absent, achievement overall was about the same as in comparison classrooms.
* The lowest achieving students and minority students in general benefit most, but the benefit obtained for the lower achievers is not bought at the expense of the higher achievers; the high achieving students generally perform as well or better in cooperative classrooms than they do in traditional classrooms
(2) ETHNIC RELATIONS
* Overall, cross-ethnic friendships improved in the cooperative learning classrooms over control classes.
(3) SOCIAL AND AFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT
*Social Skills
The ability to adjust one's behaviour to work effectively with others and to communicate with others can be learned only in the process of working and interacting with others. Thus, cooperative learning becomes a necessary component of curriculum reform if we are to prepare our students for a job world of the future.
* Cooperative learning results in more positive social development and social relations among students at all grade levels.
* when students are allowed to work together, they experience an increase in a variety of social skills; students become more able to solve problems which demand cooperation or a solution, better able to take the role of the other, and are generally more cooperative on a variety of measures, such as willingness to help and reward others.
*Self-Esteem
Almost all studies which compare the self-esteem of students following cooperative and traditional interaction, show significant gains favouring students in cooperative classrooms. This outcome is probably related to improved peer relations and to improved academic achievement.
* Self-Direction
Students in cooperative learning classrooms become more internal in their sense of control in contrast to students in traditional classrooms who feel more externally controlled. Students from cooperative learning classrooms also have a greater sense of intrinsic (self-motivated), rather than extrinsic (reward motivated), motivation.
*Liking for class
*Studies portrayed more students displayed liking for class and warmer class climates in cooperative classrooms.
*Role-Taking Abilities
Cooperative learning results in increased cognitive and affective role-taking abilities. Theoretically, role-taking and cooperative interaction opportunities have been related to the development of a higher level of morality. Experiences in situations in which bilateral and multilateral communication are necessary probably increases the general sense of interdependence among students which, in turn, increases their understanding of the experience of others.
Why Does Cooperative Learning Work?
TUTORING & PRACTICE
The learning task in cooperative classrooms is different from that in traditional classrooms in a number of ways that are likely to foster academic achievement. Those ways include, as indicated, the amount of comprehensible input, complexity of input, and amount of comprehensible output. In addition the following are increased: quantity and quality of tutoring and practice, clarity of task structure, subdivision of learning unit, time-on-task, practice opportunities, and frequency and quality of rewards.
*PEER TUTORING
Peer tutoring results in positive outcomes for both tutees and tutors.
Tutee attitudes toward subject matter, student attitudes were more positive in peer tutoring classes. The effects on tutors 'were equally impressive; their positive attitudes
towards the subject matter increased.
*FREQUENCY AND TYPE OF PRACTICE
In the well-structured mastery oriented cooperative learning methods, students spend a great deal of practice on the items they most need to learn. The students use flash cards and worksheets to master and practice skills and information) receiving repeated contact with missed items. There also is an opportunity for drill and practice also in the Jigsaw methods following the expert presentations. This structured, frequent, and often interactive practice in cooperative learning methods is probably superior for most students to group-paced work on worksheets or in workbooks. There is evidence that cooperative learning groups involve more frequent helping, tutoring, and practice than do competitive or individualistic class structures.
*TIME ON TASK
Students spend more time-on-task. As with academic achievement, those cooperative learning methods that provided group rewards based on individual achievement most consistently related to increased time-on task.
Increased time-on-task in the cooperative learning methods results from the game-like nature of the learning tasks, the clarity of task structures, the subdivision of the task into easily mastered parts, and most importantly, the interactive nature of the task. Students like to talk. The desire to express oneself to a peer, a constant problem in the traditional classroom, is channelled in the cooperative classroom toward academic achievement. This is especially true because of the incentive reward structure; peers are motivated to keep their teammates on task because that behaviour will result in higher rewards for their team.
MOTIVATION AND REWARDS
The reward structure in cooperative learning classrooms is radically different from that
found in traditional classrooms. Rewards in cooperative learning classrooms are frequent and peer supported. In most of the methods rewards are group based. In some of the methods, the rewards are also individually normed and equally accessible.
*PRO ACADEMIC PEER REWARDS AND NORMS
Cooperative learning groups involve more facilitative and encouraging interaction among students than do competitive or individualistic learning situations. This finding is particularly important as there has been a relative shift in the importance among students of peer norms as opposed to parental and teacher norms.
*FREQUENT, IMMEDIATE REWARDS
More frequent and immediate than individual or competitive classes. In many of the approaches there is immediate reinforcement from peers following academic gains. In addition, there are weekly quizzes, newsletters, and/or classroom bulletin boards that give recognition to team and individual achievements. The frequency and immediacy of rewards in cooperative learning classrooms are in contrast to those received in traditional classrooms.
If rewards are grades and/or written praise by the teacher following a good test performance) the rewards probably follow the learning by days. Such rewards are pitifully weak in contrast to peer praise immediately following learning successes.
*REWARDS FOR IMROVEMENT AND EQUAL REWARD OPPORTUNITY
All students have an equal opportunity to receive rewards each week, but for different reasons.
In STAD and Jigsaw II) each student's performance is compared with his or her past performance; therefore) weak and strong students have an equal chance to earn top grades. In TGT it is the bumping system that ensures that students compete against those of equal ability. In TAl, progress through the individual workbooks can occur at an equal rate for those working on beginning or advanced workbooks. Students bring their new knowledge to each workbook; therefore, difficulty remains relatively constant as students progress through the individual learning materials. However, With the Color-Coded Co-op Cards, students earn improvement points, as each student works on material he or she has not yet mastered. That rewards are equally accessible to all students is quite in contrast to a traditional classroom in which grading IS on the curve and the basis for comparison is not individual past performance but rather the performance of other students.
*GROUP BASED REWARDS
Group rewards have a direct effect on peer tutoring and student achievement. As more students' grades were dependent on the scores of the lowest three members in the group, pe.er tutoring and student ·achievement rose. When the group grade was contingent on the scores of the highest achievers, it was the highest achievers who learned most; when the group grade was contingent on the scores of the lowest achievers, it was the lowest achievers who learned most. The group grade motivates achievement among those students who are responsible for it. Group rewards also promote pro-social behaviours; group rewards create interdependence among students which increases cooperative behaviours.
CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE REWARDS
Certain cultural groups place a special value on working for the group -- individuals in those groups are more motivated to work hard it if will benefit the group than if it benefits only themselves. If a culture places a strong value on cooperative work and the school chooses to use competitive and individualistic structures to the exclusion of cooperative structures, there is a mismatch between home/culture values on one side and school/classroom values on the other.
The cooperative classroom structure is more compatible with the social values of minority and other cooperative students. Students who value helping and sharing will find achievement rewarding in a cooperative classroom, whereas they will have little motivation to achieve if achievement is associated only with gains for themselves. The compatibility of the classroom structure with the individual social values of minority students.
PEER SUPPORT; LOWERED ANXIETY
Traditional classroom – teacher speaks, teacher questions, student answers. Competitive!
In the cooperative classroom most content related student talk occurs either in pairs within teams, or in the small group. Team members are supportive, hoping their teammates will perform well. If there is correction, it is in the process of negotiation of meaning, not in the process of evaluation. In such a situation, talking is adaptive – it leads to content and language acquisition. And to the thing which means most to most students-- peer support and recognition.
TEACHER ROLES AND BEHAVIORS
Freed from constant lecturing. They can become consultants and gravitate to those students who can benefit most from their attention. Further, in the properly managed cooperative learning classroom teachers are freed from many of the problems of management inherent in keeping most students quiet most of the time. In cooperative classrooms students are allowed to do what they most want to do –communicate with their peers, and teachers are not forced to fight the natural tendencies of their pupils. The teacher in the cooperative classroom is on the same side as the students, serving not to dam up their natural expressiveness, but rather to channel it in positive directions.
STUDENT ROLES AND BEHAVIORS
Students in cooperative teams are more active, self-directing, and expressive, all of which may be associated with achievement gains. Students take direct responsibility for teaching each other and receiving help from each other. There is structural support for peer tutoring and mutual support, so peer norms for achievement emerge. Importantly, students are often given differentiated roles so that students of different ability levels have relatively equal status within their groups.